The PyCon Blog

A common theme - as you can see from the tagline on the PyCon 2013 website - that's running through everything we plan for PyCon 2013 is "Change the Future". It is our goal for PyCon 2013 to not only be the largest Python conference in history (2500 attendee hard cap) but to also use it to help nudge Python and the community towards the future.

In my eyes, this means talks on everything from Python 3, hacking with Python (on say - a Raspberry Pi), discussing Outreach and community growth, deep dive technical talks to expand your mind as well as gentle introductions for those new to Python who come to the conference.

In that thread - we've already announced a new workshop/tutorial for kids - "The Young Coder: Let's Learn Python". We've started planning the Python Education Summit. We're examining the financial aid budget and working to expand it, and coordinate with all the outreach groups we can to further grow it.

We feel that PyCon 2013 can be something of a watershed moment for the community, the Python Software Foundation, our sponsors - everyone. So today, I'm proud to announce a few things.

PyCon Jobs Fair

First, are you in the market for a new position? Looking to test the waters and see what's out there? If so, a lot of really cool companies sponsor PyCon and many of them are hiring. Just check out the PyCon Job Board and see for yourself! We launched it this week and there are over 38 open positions listed on the site, along with a few entries that have no explicit opening but just want to hire good people.

A bunch of the jobs are in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and areas in between, but most of them so far are outside of The Valley. Portland and Seattle are represented. The Philly area has a few openings as well. Massachusetts, Iowa, Arizona, Colorado, and Montana also show up in the list. One company has locations in the Czech Republic and Israel. Don't forget that some of these companies are open to remote workers, so insert-your-location is also an option!

One of the many benefits of being a PyCon sponsor include the ability to list your open positions on our site. You also have the ability to join the on-site job fair (last year companies got hundreds of resumes in under an hour), which is a great place to find your next employees. For hiring benefits and so much more, check out our sponsorship prospectus, and contact Jesse Noller for more details.

While that's great news...

Announcing the PyCon 2013 Keynote Lineup

That's right - we've got a stellar series of keynote speakers lined up this year. I'm always excited to sit down and think who would be an excellent keynote speaker - it's a challenge as you want to balance the abstract with the concrete, and the community. This years lineup is something I'm very proud of.

Eben Upton, Founder and Trustee - Raspberry Pi Foundation

Eben is a founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi foundation, and is responsible for the overall software and hardware architecture of the Raspberry Pi device. In his day job, he works for Broadcom as an ASIC architect and general troublemaker.

For those that don't know - the "Pi" in Raspberry Pi is an intentional misspelling of "Py" - Python is a first class citizen and the recommended educational language of the Raspberry Pi platform.

Jessica McKellar is a Linux kernel engineer from Cambridge, MA. She is a Python Software Foundation board member and an organizer for the largest Python user group in the world. With that group she runs the Boston Python Workshops for women and their friends -- an introductory programming pipeline that has brought hundreds of women into the local Python community and is being replicated in cities across the US. Jessica is a veteran open source contributor and a maintainer for several open source projects, including OpenHatch and the Twisted event-driven networking engine; she wrote a chapter on Twisted for The Architecture of Open Source Applications Volume II and is working with O'Reilly on a new edition of Twisted Networking Essentials.

Jessica's work on the Python workshops all over the US and her work for the community in terms of outreach, education and much more are a boon to the community and Python as a whole.

Raymond Hettinger is a freelance programmer with experience in cloud computing, high frequency trading, genomics, and optimization. He has worked at Sauce Labs Inc as a Director of Technology and at EWT/Fattoc as Chief Visualization Officer. Raymond attended West Point for 2 years, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and became a CPA in 1990. His favorite computer language is Python. Raymond also is a licensed pilot and has interests in math and the sciences.

When I approached Raymond, in my mind was that question - who could go into why Python is awesome? Who is a rock within the Python developer community? Raymond was the answer. His talks are always amazing - his work on Python-the-language is as well. I'm very, very excited to be able to give him the opportunity.

Guido van Rossum, BDFL

Guido van Rossum is the author of the Python programming language. He continues to serve as the "Benevolent Dictator For Life" (BDFL), meaning that he continues to oversee the Python development process, making decisions where necessary. He is currently employed by Google.

What would a PyCon - or Python be without Guido? His talks are always interesting - each year they're different and we learn more about not just the history of the language, but also the future. I've been honored to interview him on stage, and I've sat and had my assumptions and thoughts challenged by what he has had to say.

That's almost a wrap...

I've been sitting on this post for a few days - both excited and and honored that I continue to be able to do these things for PyCon and the community as a whole. It boggles my mind how far the conference and community have come in a relatively short amount of time.

PyCon is a showcase for the community - it's speakers, tutorial instructors - it's attendees and sponsors all come together to make PyCon a unique entity in both conferences in general and within the community.

As always - I can not thank our sponsors enough - we're signing more and more every week but we need more - without the support of sponsors PyCon can not happen. I've been beating the pavement every single day trying to get a hold of new sponsors, and to bring back many of the ones we had in 2012. Without sponsorship, we will not be able to achieve many of the things we are trying to do - the robust financial aid and outreach, more surprises, and so much more.

If you know of a company (or are one) - please take a moment to take a look at the Prospectus - we've added a lot of options this year, and benefits for all the levels. We also have the "Why Sponsor" page which attempts to make the case for sponsorship.